Workers volunteering to administer vaccine
Porter health professionals make getting shots easier
Lu Hoyt works part-time as registered nurse in the emergency department at Northwest Health-Porter.
For the last few weeks, she’s also been volunteering her time to administer COVID-19 vaccines for the Porter County Health Department at the Expo Center.
“This is such a change because everyone is happy to be here,” the Valparaiso resident said, adding people are not happy when they go to the emergency room because they don’t feel good. “I feel like there should be cheering when they get their shots. It’s fun.”
Hoyt is one of a corps of volunteer medical professionals giving up their time each week to move the county’s vaccination effort along. With a second health department vaccine site now open in Portage, the health department is looking for additional qualified people to administer vaccines, as well as greet people at the door and take their temperature, help them sign in and schedule them for a second vaccine.
“It just sounded like something I should do,” Hoyt said. “Being that I’m part-time, I was able to pick something up.”
About 16 people have volunteered to give vaccines, said Jess Malher, the health department’s epidemiological nurse. Five of them were at the Expo Center Friday, along with a couple other volunteers filling nonmedical roles.
“We do 10 shots every 10 minutes so if I have two health department staff out here, that would mean I need eight volunteers,” she said.
Without the volunteers, Malher said, the county wouldn’t be able to distribute as many vaccines or would have to cut back on everyday operations at the health department, which includes providing routine vaccinations to adults and children, among other duties.
The week of Feb. 1, the Valparaiso site administered 1,900 doses of the vaccine, said Dr. Maria Stamp, the county’s health officer.
The Indiana State Department of Health, which provides the county with the Moderna vaccine, notified the county that its total allotment of vaccines was going up to 2,200 a week for the next few weeks.
“We thought that was an awful lot to do in one location, so thought, ‘Why don’t we split it up?’” Stamp said, adding other Portage vaccine sites include Meijer and NorthShore Health Clinic, but the health department wanted a presence there and has an office there.
The county health department is distributing around 100 doses a day at the North County Government Annex, at 3590 Willowcreek Road.
The site is a good one for the number of vaccinations the county is doling out there and has parking access, Stamp said, adding when the number of doses the county can administer there increases, the department will work with Portage Mayor Sue Lynch to find a larger spot.
The additional county vaccine site also is driving the need for more volunteers to join folks who are already giving their time.
That includes Amy Krupa of Valparaiso. She’s been a registered nurse at Northwest Health-Porter for about a year and a half. She recently moved from the COVID-19 medical surgical unit to the intensive care unit.
She started volunteering to dispatch the vaccine as soon as she found out about it, to “put a little good karma in the world,” something she said that’s needed.
“It’s nice to get a thank you” for giving someone a vaccine, she said, “and maybe if I can do a little thing, we will have less of this going on.”
Randy Strickland, who retired three years ago after 47 years at LaSalle Steel in Hammond, came to the Expo Center for a vaccine Wednesday and by Friday, he was greeting people at the door and checking their temperatures with a touchless digital thermometer.
For the past eight years, he’s spent this time of year on a two-week Hawaiian vacation, canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic.
“I’m retired and it’s one of those things. I could stay at home and live in my little world or I could help people,” the Valparaiso resident said. “I figured this is a better choice.”
To find out more about volunteering for the Porter County Health Department’s vaccine effort, go to porterco.org/beahero. Additional information on COVID-19 and vaccination sites in Porter County can be found at porterco.org.